The head of Old Fort Niagara will be shedding light on the role it played during America’s war for independence as a British outpost.
Titled, “It is impossible to defend the Country: The American Revolution on the New York Frontier,” the talk will focus on the war across New York state from the beginning of the war to the end, from the Mohawk Valley to the different raids that happened here in Western New York. It is hosted by the Historical Association of Lewiston
Robert Emerson, the executive director at Old Fort Niagara, will use powerpoint presentations, maps and paintings to show how fighting in the American Revolution in New York developed. The name of the presentation is attributed to a militia officer in the Mohawk country about how difficult it was there.
“Most of the raids going against the Mohawk Valley were organized at Fort Niagara,” Emerson said. “Its a statewide view of the Revolutionary War with a lot of local stuff thrown in.”
Throughout the American Revolution, Old Fort Niagara was held by British forces and served a number of roles for that army. It was a space where soldiers were stationed, where American colonists who were loyal to the British crown ended up as they fled their homes, and a place where Native American leaders and British officials met. It was where the British were able to supply native war parties with the arms and ammunition needed to raid not only in New York, but in Pennsylvania.
“The fort was the HQ of the British on the Great Lakes,” Emerson said.
From 1775 to 1777, the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, people did not want to be involved with the conflict, with both Congress and British forces working at first to keep it that way. The British first attempted to court them as allies and by 1777, most of the Haudenosaunee went on the British side, with the Oneida nation siding with the Americans.
Despite the role the fort played in British war efforts, no major battles during the Revolution took place here in Western New York. The closest to it was during the Sullivan Campaign of 1779, which was ordered by George Washington as retaliation for the earlier Haudenosaunee raids. The continental army carrying out a scorched earth campaign that made it as far as Geneseo, about 80 miles away from Fort Niagara.
By the time Gen. John Sullivan made it that far, it was September and he opted to turn away. Emerson said that the logistics to talk the fort were not in place and Sullivan did not have enough artillery to take the fort, which had a garrison of 1,000 men at the time.
When the United States and British forces signed the Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the war in an American victory, it allowed for a number of border forts along the Great Lakes to go to the United States. Continued disputes after the treaty was signed and loyalists claims for financial retribution saw the British continue to hold on the several forts, like Fort Niagara. It was only after John Jay negotiated the Jay Treaty in 1794 that all remaining forts under British control would convert to the Americans, for Fort Niagara that took place in 1796.
Emerson has spoken at Historical Association of Lewiston events before, as staff from Old Fort Niagara regularly perform outreach efforts like this for other community organizations.
The talk will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah Fellowship Hall, at 915 Oneida St. in Lewiston. It is free to the public and refreshments will be served.